A CROOKED financial adviser who conned two retired couples out of their life savings is behind bars.

Janice Griffiths, 40, was jailed for 21 months after she admitted stealing £95,000 from Alan Dingsdale and William Gray.

She was also sentenced to nine months in prison for perverting the course of justice.

Griffiths, who operated as a financial adviser and estate agent in Warrington, persuaded Alan and Geraldine Dingsdale, of Beechwood, Run-corn, to invest £35,000 in a non-existent syndicate investment scheme.

She also conned her Weaverham next-door neighbour, William Gray, into investing £60,000 in the phoney scheme.

Griffiths claimed she intended to invest the cash but used the money to prop up her failing business. However, Chester Crown Court heard she drove a top-of-the-range Mercedes and enjoyed a luxury lifestyle.

Judge Mr Justice Woodward described her crimes as 'particularly mean'.

He said: 'The Dingsdales were long-term friends and you exploited that friendship.

'They trusted you and were relying on you to invest their savings. You exploited the trust that was placed in you.

'You have also tried to paint yourself as the victim of this rather than the perpetrator. You have blighted the life of these two couples forever.

'You wanted to live a more comfortable life and you did so at the expense of others.'

She also conned a Warrington doctor and his wife out of £11,000 after she took out a tenancy on their home but failed to pay any rent for nine months.

During the course of a civil trial brought by the doctor, Griffiths produced a fake document which she claimed he had signed. She was later prosecuted for perverting the course of justice.

Griffiths had known the Dingsdales since she was 14 and regularly visited them at their home.

Retired ICI process worker Mr Dingsdale said: 'I am delighted she has gone to prison but I would like to have seen her locked up for longer.

'In this case, the punishment cannot fit the crime. My wife has not been the same since this happened.

'The police have told us we will probably never see our money back.'

Mrs Dingsdale, 72, is being treated for depression and her husband says his retirement plans are in tatters.

Mr Gray has been forced to remortgage his home.

Griffiths was also banned from being a company director for five years.

She was featured on a BBC consumer show in 2004, agreeing to artificially deflate the price of houses in return for backhanders from a property developer.